What's next for SpaceX's Starship after its successful 6th test flight?

[Admin]

SpaceX's Starship megarocket performed well on its sixth test flight, which occurred on Tuesday (Nov. 19). So, what's next for the giant reusable vehicle?

What's next for SpaceX's Starship after its successful 6th test flight? : Read more

 

[WinnEditor]

SpaceX's Starship megarocket performed well on its sixth test flight, which occurred on Tuesday (Nov. 19). So, what's next for the giant reusable vehicle?

What's next for SpaceX's Starship after its successful 6th test flight? : Read more

It failed its final landing requirement during the 6th flight, how is that a success? And with flights 2, 3 and 5 ending very badly, I think the Starship team needs to review quite of bit of data before they get it right.

 

[slavkosky]

It failed its final landing requirement during the 6th flight, how is that a success? And with flights 2, 3 and 5 ending very badly, I think the Starship team needs to review quite of bit of data before they get it right.

"Failed" is a relative term, as SpaceX engineers really just need as much real world flight-data as possible right now. Failures were expected.

Flight 2:

• Successfully proved hot-staging during ship/booster separation would work.

Flight 3:

• Successfully tested tank-to-tank fuel transfer (requirement from NASA for Artemis)
• Tested prototype payload door
• Successfully reentered atmosphere, found where more heat shielding was needed

Flight 5:

• Caught the (largest ever made) booster with the tower it launched from
• Ship splashed down in ocean within feet of its intended target, less heat damage to flaps

Flight 6:

• Successfully tested re-light of Ship engines while in space (NASA requirement for Artemis)
• Despite some flap damage, Ship still lands within feet of intended target in ocean
• Catching the booster again was definitely not a 'requirement'

SpaceX is not developing Starship like the other rocket companies. The program is hardware-rich, which means build a lot and break a lot in order to get the job done as fast as possible. Every "failure" you mention was actually a success in that the team got tons of data to use to improve future iterations.

I've been listening to people say "that'll never work" when talking about SpaceX ever since the first time they tried to land the Falcon 9 booster.

Haters gonna hate I guess...